Muscle fatigue includes muscle pain attributed to strenuous exercise, lassitude in the arms and legs attributed to acute exercise, and lower back pain and stiffness in the shoulder attributed to holding of a fixed posture over a prolonged period of time.
Well-known methods to relieve muscle fatigue include massage, and nutritional supplements such as vitamins and proteins, etc.
Alanylglutamine is a dipeptide containing two amino acids, alanine and glutamine, and is immediately degraded into alanine and glutamine in the body (refer to “Clinical Science”, 1988, Vol. 75, No. 5, p. 463-8). The action of glutamine is known to have many effects on physiological functions such as the regulation of skeletal muscle protein metabolism, repair of small intestine mucosa, and improvement of immunofunction, and it has been reported that the effects of alanine on physiological functions include an action to suppress blood sugar levels in diabetes patients (refer to “L-Alanyl-L-Glutamine”, Kyowa Hakko Co., Ltd., 2006, p. 1).
Alanylglutamine is superior in heat stability and solubility in aqueous solutions compared to glutamine, which has low-solubility and poor stability (refer to “L-Alanyl-L-Glutamine”, Kyowa Hakko Co., Ltd., 2006, p. 3), and is used in parenteral nutritional agents as a glutamine supply source.
Glutamine peptide derived from wheat gluten is known to have an action to decrease the feeling of fatigue and muscle pain after an exercise load (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-97162).
Nonetheless, alanylglutamine is not known to have an action to remedy muscle fatigue.